El Burro Blanco

8 miles in the morning into Santa Clara.

8.25 miles in the afternoon with the kids.

I woke feeling great this morning.  I was really loose from the massage and I could tell a difference.  I went into Santa Clara and then back.  I was locked into 7:30 pace and just enjoyed the nice weather.  Beautiful morning.

First day of afternoon practice for the team.  Happy to say all the kids survived the heat.  I ran 6 miles with some of the boys and then went around making sure everyone else felt fine.  Slight breeze made the run somewhat bearable today.  Decent start to the week.

Met up with the guys this morning for our Tinman tempo workout.  We did a 3 mile warm up and then did 9 miles at Tinman pace which ended up being 5:51/mile overall.  We finished with almost a 3 mile cool down.  This workout was one of the better workouts I've done in a while.  Dave, Clyde, and me stayed together and helped each other out.  I can a difference with being in much better shape compared to when we first started these workouts.  Happy to be done for the day.

8 miles in the morning over into Santa Clara.  The cool breeze this morning actually felt cool.  I love running in the morning when it is like that.  No watch.

4 more miles in the heat this afternoon over to my parent's house.  Glad I didn't go any farther.  Nice and easy.

Big workout this morning with Dave and Aaron.  We met up at the DC and worked out the trail this morning.  We did a 3.5 mile warm up and then did 1 mile at Tinman (6:01).  We then did 5 x 1 mile repeats with 200m recovery.  We just went back and forth on the trail.  The goal for me was to hit 5:10-5:15 for each one.  5:08, 5:15 (headwind), 5:08, 5:18 (headwind), and 5:10 is how it went down.  My stomach was acting up from something I ate last night.  We cooled down back to the car and I got rid of dinner last night.  I felt much better after wards.  Much cooler temps made the workout bearable.  Happy with the times but know I could have done a little better feeling closer to 100%. 

I saw Clyde and Paul running so I decided to do about 2 more miles worth of cool down.  Excited to be running up in Pine Valley for the next couple days with the kids.  It should be fun. 

We made it up to Pine Valley with the team and I gave them a lovely hill workout at 7000 ft. elevation which they all enjoyed :)  It ended up being right at 5.5 miles.  I already enjoy the temperature up here.

3 easy miles this morning with the kids in Pine Valley.  We went over past the ranger station and into the park for a little bit.  Nice and cool this morning.

Most of the team went fishing this afternoon at Pine Valley Reservoir so I decided to go and explore some trails.  I went along the canal trail and then caught the Brown Point Trail over to the Whipple Trail.  I was cruising along and all of a sudden a huge 4 point buck ran right in front of me.  It stopped on the trail, gave me one good look, and then bounded up the mountain.  It was cool seeing this.  I came back around and it was a total of 4 miles.  It was fun to see some of the kids catch fish today. 

Later this evening I took the team up on some of the same trails I was running on this afternoon.  The kids were loving it.  We ended up seeing 5 more deer.  All of the kids said they loved running up through the trees.  I am really glad I could take them up there.

I went over with the team to the start of the race this morning so all of the kids could help volunteer at the aid stations.  It was fun for them to see me running.  They seemed to have a really good time.  I did a 1 mile warm up and then off we went.  This course was extremely hilly so I knew I was going to just be using this for a workout.  Dave and Clyde took off and I caught up to them 1.5 miles into the race.  It started to rain a little bit and Katey was coming towards us after dropping some of the kids off so we decided to drop our watches off with her.  It made the run more enjoyable not having to worry about the pace and how fast we were going.  We kept the first half of the race very conversational and then really "enjoyed" the hills on the way back.  Clyde and Dave were pushing up the hills pretty good and I decided to sit back and not worry too much.  I was about a .10 mile behind them and eventually caught up and passed Dave on the 2nd major section of hills.  We got to the top and I started to pick up the pace in order to reel Clyde in.  I was coming up on Clyde when Dave caught up to me and we decided to finish the race together.  We moved up by Clyde and finished the last 1.5 miles together.  It was fun to cross the finish line together and hear everyone try and figure out who won the race.  It was an emotional feeling crossing the line together with Dave and Clyde.  I almost shed a few tears.  We do everything together!  The cross country kids were really excited to see me finish.  I think it was the short shorts I was wearing.  They are not used to it.  I did a 2 mile cool down and then went back to camp and closed down shop with the team so we could hurry back to St. George.

Very happy with the week.  I hit some solid workouts and had a good time the last few days in Pine Valley with the cross country team at our camp.  Just need to stay healthy and continue hitting solid workouts for the next couple of weeks.